Review of The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (2008) by Shaina R — 01 Oct 2012

This rises above most monotonous Christian dramas..

PLOT:Three 12-year-olds including Dustin (Jansen Panettiere) are living a carefree life in the sumemr of 1970. Wehn Dustin goes to mow a lawn, he meets old church-goer Mr. Sperry (Gavin MacLeod) who teaches himself and his friends about God, the gospel, and his plans for life in fun little lessons. Meanwhile, Dustin tries to deal with bullies and crushes not to mention warming the cold heart of the man across the street from Mr. Sperry, Mr. Barnes (Robert Guillaume). It is a somewhat generic Christian plot, but it's executed quite decently.

ACTING:This is where the movie's weak. The acting in here mainly sucks. The kids all suck and even some of the adults. The only actors that did well were Gavin MacLeod and Robert Guillaume.

SCORE:This was surprising, but the score was actually pretty excellent.

OTHER CONTENT:Other than the acting, the other things that brought the movie down were the predictability and lack of suspense. I predicted most of the movie by the time it was half over. There was a twist that I never would've caught though, and also though you knew what was gonna happen, it still was executed enough for you to feel emotion. The lack of suspense simply means that the movie was kind of boring straight through. On the upside, the lessons taught in here helped me realize certain things, but I feel this only works because I am a Christian. If I had not been a Christian, I feel I would have hated this-so my opinion is limited on a critique site.

OVERALL,an ok Christian drama with a decently executed plot, sucky acting, excellent score, raging predictability, lack of suspense a.k.a. boredom, and good lessons for Christians.